David Gergen: Trump Gave 'Slanderous Speech' Toward Clinton

Donald Trump on Wednesday cited by name a controversial 2015 book that alleges Hillary Clinton used her tenure at the State Department to "enrich" her family, earning admonishment from a CNN political analyst.

During his 40-minute speech, Trump cited the book, "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich," as an entrée into calling Clinton "the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency."

"The book "Clinton Cash" documents how Bill and Hillary used the State Department to enrich their family at America's expense," Trump said at the outset of his speech. "She gets rich making you poor."

That earned a rebuke from David Gergen, a political contributor on CNN.

"I was really surprised he leaned as heavily as he did upon the [Peter] Schweizer book, "Clinton Cash," that has been basically discredited," Gergen said on CNN's Berman and Bolduan after Trump's speech concluded.

Trump continued on the theme of the book and its author, Peter Schweizer, that the Clinton Foundation was in essence a conduit to exchange money for favors.

"The other candidate in this race has spent her entire life making money for special interests and made plenty of money for them and been taking plenty of money out for herself," Trump said.

"Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft," Trump said. "She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund, doing favors for oppressive regimes and many others and really many, many others in exchange for cash, pure and simple, folks."

Gergen said on CNN that Trump's statements were paramount to defamation.

"I think there's a pattern here and we ought to investigate," Gergen said. "I'm sorry, at this level, you can't slander somebody — and this was a slanderous speech, without more proof."

Donald Trump on Wednesday cited by name a controversial 2015 book that alleges Hillary Clinton used her tenure at the State Department to "enrich" her family, earning admonishment from a CNN political analyst.